Having just read Peter's excellent book (wish I new about the new version.lol but will still purchase it) I have decided to adopt many of Peters suggestions to try and keep my library "future proof" Currently I'm using Aperture 2 to manage my images. What I want to do is export my images from Aperture and have them referenced instead. I know I can export managed images to a new location which is fine but I want to use the Image Ingestion script to create Peters suggested file structure and naming convention. If I export the images from Aperture to a temporary folder then use that as the source of the ingestion script to create the file naming and directory structure (and convert from RAW to DNG) Aperture presumably will no longer be able to reference the images and I would loose my adjustments and crops etc.

I think the big problem you face is that Aperture would lose any adjustments and assignments to projects / albums. I suspect you'd be better off leaving existing referenced files where they are, just doing the managed-referenced switch, and getting new images right from now on.

However, after that counsel of despair, I don't know Aperture all that well but I think there may be a way. I am not certain this will work, but can one use Aperture, not the script, to reorganise the referenced archive? I'm thinking about File > Relocate Masters for Project. It looks like you have to do this one project at a time, but there are then options to set up new subfolder structures and filenames. So the reorganisation would be done, and you wouldn't lose your adjustments. Would this work?

Thanks for the reply, Yes if I relocate the masters into the new file structure from within Aperture that would work, obviously the date the images within the project would al be different but Id rather do that than loose all my adjustments on 20,000 plus images.RgsColin

I was just looking for information on how to do this exact same thing, except for the particular image ingestion script. I had just uploaded my first 345 images just to play around with the program (didn't feel like waiting for the 100GB+ to import). After the initial import I started adjusting my images, and before I knew it I had finished all 345 images. This became a problem as I didn't want to maintain a separate Aperture-Managed library, but instead decided on a Referenced library. I had originally imported previously adjust images in iPhoto which lead me to believe that relocating masters wouldn't work. I backed up all my data and lo and behold it worked! I had converted from a Managed library to a linked library while maintaining all the adjustments. These images where .jpeg so I'm not sure if the result would have been different had I used a RAW format so keep that in mind. I was unsure about the relocating masters because of the wording in the description. It made it sound like the program would physically export the imported images into a selected location on a particular drive, and not Reference the image to an existing location.

1) Select all the images you would like to convert from Managed to Referenced

2) File -Relocate Master

3) Select folder location of the original images

4) Click on "Relocate Masters" at the bottom of the window

That simple. All the images that were physically in the Aperture-Managed library will be deleted, only Referenced files will remain. Just don't move the Masters! If you do, you will have to Relocate Masters again.To confirm, check the size of the the Aperture library before Relocating. After Relocating Masters the Aperture library will be much smaller. i.e (1.71GB to 422.6MB)